Siberia. In the year 1906, 45,000 political exiles were sent, and settled mostly as colonists in various parts of Western and Central Siberia, and since then the number sent from old Russia has varied from 8000 to 15,000 a year. In the year 1909 there were in the Yenisei Government a little over 50,000 political exiles undergoing sentences of various lengths. The majority of these will probably remain in Siberia even after their sentence has expired, since all but the most highly cultivated find there an opening for social and economic improvement such as they would never find in European Russia. While, therefore, it does not look as if the Reform movement has tended to reduce the number of exiles for political offences, Siberia has no longer the terrors of a penal colony. The number of convicts has been reduced; those that are sent, being drawn from the worst type of criminal, are strictly confined to special prisons in certain districts, so as not to interfere in any way with the peaceful economic development of Western and Central Siberia. Speaking generally, the economic condition of political exiles has greatly improved during the last decade; but it would be a great reform, without any danger to the Government, if the system of exile by administrative order without trial were abolished. This last is still a serious blot on Russia's judicial system.
The administrative system in Siberia at the present day does not differ from that of European Russia. Civil Government is in operation throughout the western and central provinces. The same liberties are allowed to, and the same restrictions are imposed on, Russian subjects in Siberia as in European
